Protecting Freedom

WEBISODE 7

Trainees learn various tactical movements such as covering—securing—their battle buddies while each is on the move, and at the same time concealing their movements within combat type settings.

I’m Private Justin Erceg, I’m Private David Wilk.

Erceg:
Today we were taught the basic principles of cover and concealment. A lot of this was new material to me and just the positions were really awkward, my helmet was in the mud but the positions we learned were beneficial to us.

Wilk:
The pit was just training to get us used to going into the low crawl, high crawl, rushing positions, to the prone positions, to the low crawl or high crawl.

Erceg:
After the pit, the Drill Sergeant took us to practice course and they showed us how we would do the buddy system and talk with our buddy when we would be going through the drill. Its nice to know that all my drill sergeants have been in combat because its makes me more confident in myself that they’ve been there, done that, and they’re teaching us those skills.

Wilk:
The final evaluation was just was just putting everything we’ve learned before hand together. We started off with the wall, then we had to go under barb-wire and then most of the time from there, was just rushing, then getting into the prone position and covering while our battle buddy moved up to the next point.

Alejandro:
It was an adrenaline rush; you get so much from it, it’s like eating half a jar of honey.

Erceg:
The most fun part was the explosions. I thought the explosions were definitely fun. I never heard anything like that before just going off behind you, and just getting down on your knees and protecting your weapon, that was pretty cool.

Wilk:
The hardest part for me was to go underneath the barb-wire. Cause I’m so long, when I’m using my weapon to push the barb-wire up, I had to worry about when I turn I get caught on it.

Erceg:
Basic training is going a lot better now. We just got out of Red Phase a couple of weeks ago. White Phase is a lot better. We have a lot more free time. I’m getting used to it day-by-day little-by-little so it’s going good.